Umran Malik & Arshdeep Singh to be part of SA T20I series while Pujara back to the Test team

SRH pacer Umran Malik and PBKS pacer Arshdeep Singh have got their first call-up for the Indian team as a part of the 5-match T20I home series against South Africa. The 5 T20Is will take place from 9th June to 19th June.

In the absence of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul will lead the squad and Rishabh Pant is appointed as vice-captain.

Umran Malik had a brilliant IPL season this year. He made some big batters the victim of his lethal pace and picked 22 wickets in 14 matches including a 5-wicket haul against Gujarat Titans.

Malik was retained by Sunrisers Hyderabad this year and he has impressed everyone with his fast pace which left the batters stunned. Malik regularly clocks speeds of 150+ km/h and he bowled the fastest delivery of the IPL 2022 at 157 km/h against Delhi Capitals.

Arshdeep Singh was one of the retained players in the Punjab Kings team. Arshdeep’s bowling skills come handy during the death bowlers. In 14 matches, Arshdeep has picked 10 wickets at an impressive economy of 7.70.

Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya and wicket-keeper batter Dinesh Kartik are back in the T20I squad.

After a long recovery from injury, Pandya led an IPL team as a full-time captain for the first time. Gujarat Titans bought Hardik Pandya before the mega auction and appointed him captain and GT has ended the league stage at the top of the table. Along with a decent batting performance, Pandya also bowled quite a few overs this season which shows that he is fit and fine to be a bowler option as well.

Dinesh Kartik had a good season as a finisher for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. He has smashed 287 runs in 14 innings at an average of 57.40 and a staggering strike rate of 191.33.

India T20I squad For South Africa series

KL Rahul (c), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (vc, wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik

The seniors players Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and full-time Indian skipper Rohit Sharma have been rested for the series in-order to prepare for the 5th Test match against England starting from 1st July. The 5th and final Test match is a rescheduled match from the 5-match Test series which took place in 2021. The series took a long pause after the final match was cancelled, with India taking a 2-1 lead after 4 Tests.

There will be changes to the squad which played the series in England last year.

After a series of poor performances, senior Test batters Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara were dropped from the Test team against Sri Lanka this year. Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer replaced both in the team and Shreyas Iyer impressed everyone with his batting in debut Test match.

Pujara has been called back to the Test side which is scheduled to tour England, after he played well at county cricket for Sussex.

India Test Team Squad For 5th Test Against England

Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc) Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna